Is Your Digital Marketing Agency Profiting from the New E-A-T Ranking Factors?

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We all know that in order to be seen in the top search results, we need to carefully follow Google’s latest system of ranking factors. Fail to meet their standards and you can find yourself suddenly relegated to the lonely, deep pages of results where potential customers won’t find you. In order to stay current, digital marketers need to stay up to date on the latest factors. In June 2014, Google’s full Quality Page Ranking Guidelines were released including over 200 factors contributing to their latest algorithm. Is your Digital Marketing Agency making the most of the latest changes?

Be good enough to E-A-T

The latest changes revolve around one key element – E-A-T or Expertise, Authority and Trust. Google wants to send users to the best topic-based content available. Consequently, they have developed a system of evaluating website content based on the level of expertise of the author, authority the website holds based on reputation, and trust the website exhibits based on secure transactions, complete contact information and transparency.

What it takes to be an Expert

Is your content being written by an expert? Don’t panic! An expert in the eyes of Google is not necessarily a card-carrying, PHD holding, award-winning dynamo. Google wants to be sure that your website offers an experienced source of information, but that information can come from first-hand accounts and informed reviews. There is an increased focus on personal experience. This new algorithm considers it to be of equal importance to formal credentials.

A step away from Metrics

While keywords and links continue to play an important role in SEO, they are no longer the key focus of Google’s ranking system. Creating high quality topic-specific content, relevant to your website’s users is the new way to get on the map, and stay on the map. It’s clear that in order to meet these standards digital marketers should downplay use of on-page ads, links to less-than highly credible websites, and content that is poorly written and/or edited.

It’s all about good Content

The bottom line is that in order to be highly ranked in Google’s eye, you need to provide high quality, relevant content that they can direct users to – free from anything suspicious or pushy. You should be steering away from articles that read like promotions and toward information your readers will benefit from and take an interest in. Each new update in Google’s Quality Page Ranking System is put in place to closer align with what Google considers “high quality”. Creating good content following E-A-T principles will continue to be crucial as the ranking systems evolve.